The relationships between illness perceptions, social support, coping on mood after first-time myocardial infarction

The aim of this study was to examine how illness perceptions, social support, and coping influence first-time MI patients' moods after six months post-MI. The second aim was to examine the roles of first-time MI couples' illness perceptions on their own moods. One hundred and twenty six first-time MI patients filled in the questionnaires during their hospitalisation, and 91 of them completed all three assessments during the first six months. Data from 42 first-time MI couples were also collected during the patients' hospitalisation. Thirty-five of the 42 MI couples completed all three assessments during the first six months. Therefore, information from 91 MI patients and 35 MI couples were used for longitudinal data analyses. The results indicated that when comparing with healthy people, first-time MI patients reported higher levels of depression, state anxiety and negative affect. Those held negative illness perceptions (e.g., worse illness consequences, longer recovery time, and worse symptom perception) tended to feel more depressed or anxious. Hierarchical regressions indicated that symptom perception and illness consequence perception were two important contributors of these MI patients' moods. In addition, some types of coping strategies and mood variables were also important. Data of MI couples indicated that spouses were also influenced by the MI event, and they reported higher levels of depression, state anxiety and negative affect. Those couples who both had negative illness perceptions of the MI tended to feel more negative. However, couples' moods did not significant correlate with each other. Hierarchical regression further showed only their own illness perceptions and moods significantly contributed to their own moods. Their partners' illness perceptions and moods did not contribute to their own moods. The finding suggested illness perceptions played important roles on MI patients' and spouses' moods. To improve moods, future studies should focus more on interventions of illness perceptions

Automatic programming of simulation models

The objective of automatic programming is to improve the overall environment for describing the program. This improved environment is realized by a reduction in the amount of detail that the programmer needs to know and is exposed to. Furthermore, this improved environment is achieved by a specification language that is more natural to the user's problem domain and to the user's way of thinking and looking at the problem. The goal of this research is to apply the concepts of automatic programming (AP) to modeling discrete event simulation system. Specific emphasis is on the design and development of simulation tools to assist the modeler define or construct a model of the system and to then automatically write the corresponding simulation code in the target simulation language, GPSS/PC. A related goal is to evaluate the feasibility of various languages for constructing automatic programming simulation tools

Automatic programming of simulation models

The concepts of software engineering were used to improve the simulation modeling environment. Emphasis was placed on the application of an element of rapid prototyping, or automatic programming, to assist the modeler define the problem specification. Then, once the problem specification has been defined, an automatic code generator is used to write the simulation code. The following two domains were selected for evaluating the concepts of software engineering for discrete event simulation: manufacturing domain and a spacecraft countdown network sequence. The specific tasks were to: (1) define the software requirements for a graphical user interface to the Automatic Manufacturing Programming System (AMPS) system; (2) develop a graphical user interface for AMPS; and (3) compare the AMPS graphical interface with the AMPS interactive user interface

NbSe3: Effect of Uniaxial Stress on the Threshold Field and Fermiology

We have measured the effect of uniaxial stress on the threshold field ET for the motion of the upper CDW in NbSe3. ET exhibits a critical behavior, ET ~ (1 - e/ec)^g, wher e is the strain, and ec is about 2.6% and g ~ 1.2. This ecpression remains valid over more than two decades of ET, up to the highest fields of about 1.5keV/m. Neither g nor ec is very sensitive to the impurity concentraction. The CDW transition temperature Tp decreases linearly with e at a rate dTp/de = -10K/%, and it does not show any anomaly near ec. Shubnikov de-Haas measurements show that the extremal area of the Fermi surface decreases with increasing strain. The results suggest that there is an intimate relationship between pinning of the upper CDW and the Fermiology of NbSe3.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure